Timothy Reutershan

A memorial service will be held on May 6 for Timothy Reutershan, a “true Bonac entrepreneur,” his family said, who had several businesses in East Hampton.

Mr. Reutershan, who was widely read and knowledgeable about history, music, art, and literature, died of heart failure on Feb. 17 in Tucson, where he had lived for the past three years. He was 60.

A native of East Hampton, he graduated from East Hampton High School in 1974. His varied jobs here included working as a lobster fisherman and as a heavy equipment operator, and operating his own businesses, including Reutershan Firewood and a lawn service. In the early ’70s, he was a part of the team that constructed all of the street landscaping in downtown Montauk.

Mr. Reutershan preferred independent learning to classroom instruction, the family said, though he attended Alfred State College for a year. He later completed a course in heavy equipment operation in South Carolina.

As a young boy, he became an expert on the Civil War and the life of Robert E. Lee. As a young man, he commissioned Doug Kuntz, his childhood friend and a local photographer, to create a photo history of the remaining East End windmills. Later, he began collecting historical plates, inspired by plates depicting East Hampton and Sag Harbor that were commissioned from Rowland & Marcellus by his great-great-uncle Maximillian Reutershan.

Mr. Reutershan was, like his mother, a voracious reader. He was known for an exceptionally sharp wit, and never failed, his family said, to send a crowd into gales of laughter over his jokes, tales, and stories. He was passionate about country music as well, even trying his hand at songwriting, and was drawn to the art and artists of the East End.

Besides East Hampton, he had lived for a time in Southampton and in Bridgehampton, where his beloved shar-pei, Chester, was a local celebrity.

Born on April 14, 1956, at Southampton Hospital, Mr. Reutershan was the son of Robert G. and Nanci Reutershan, both of whom died before him. He is survived by a brother, Christopher Reutershan of Bel Air, Md., and by three sisters, Susan Garde of Panama City Beach, Fla., Cynthia Marshall of East Hampton, and Kate Johnson of Bridgehampton.

Mr. Reutershan was cremated. A memorial service will be held on May 6 at 2 p.m. at Most Holy Trinity Cemetery in East Hampton, where his ashes are buried. Memorial donations have been suggested to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, P.O. Box 901, Wainscott 11975.